The Half-Hearted tells the story of Lewis Haystoun, a dilettante and coward. At a Scottish country house party hosted by Lady Manorwater, Lewis falls for Alice Wishart, one of the guests. Lewis answers the call to adventure finally and sets off to Kashmir in search of 'success, enterprise, new...

Focused upon the trials for murder of John Porteous and of Effie Deans in 1736 and 1737, this novel also spans the 80 years of the life of David Deans whode death takes place in 1751. The text raises the problem of a judicial system that does not produce justice.

Rafael Sabatini wrote his stories of The Historical Night's Entertainment to thrill and delight his readers with accounts of bizarre and extraordinary episodes. Based on real events, Sabatini has brought to them his own masterly embellishments, adding all the liveliness and excitement of fiction...

Henry Fielding (1707–1754) began his career as a novelist in 1740 with the publications of Shamela and then Joseph Andrews, with which he anticipates his masterpiece, Tom Jones.Thomas Keymer is Elmore Fellow and Tutor in English at St. Anne’s College, Oxford. Alice Wakely teaches at the...

The story of Quasimodo, the hunchback bellringer of Notre-Dame cathedral and his devotion to the beautiful gypsy dancer Esmeralda. When the demented archdeacon Frollo sets out to abduct Esmeralda, he uses Quasimodo to do the evil deed on his behalf. However, Quasimodo turns from captor to saviour.

Returning to Russia from a sanitarium in Switzerland, the Christ-like epileptic Prince Myshkin finds himself enmeshed in a tangle of love, torn between two women - the notorious kept woman Nastasya and the pure Aglaia - both involved, in turn, with the corrupt, money-hungry Ganya. In the end...

"Algernon, a wealthy young Londoner, pretends to have a friend named Bunbury who lives in the country and is frequently in ill health. Whenever Algernon wants to avoid an unwelcome social obligation, or just get away for the weekend, he makes an ostensible visit to his "sick friend". In that way...